Designing in Orlando: Part One
This past weekend I taught “Design Your Own Nature Quilt,” in Orlando, FL. The supply list included “artistic courage,” and the students brought it in abundant supply. We spent all morning learning about design, which then gave them the skills they needed to sketch their own design plans. Most had never done this before, but they all did a fantastic job!
Finally, we pulled out the fabric and dove in. (A time issue gave them only 2 hours to work with fabric, but they still accomplished a lot.)
Joyce really cut loose and took a lot of artistic liberties with her photo of a delicate flower. She kicked up the colors which added drama, and she also added many small details. She will add some pleated fabric for the wispy top parts of the flower yet to come.
Click on any photo for a larger view
Notice how she visually cropped her photo with two L-shaped pieces of cardboard. This is a very effective way to find the best composition.
Dianne worked from a photo of caladiums.
She was smart enough to enlarge just a few leaves, rather than trying to represent the entire patch of plants. This allowed her to focus on the beautiful veining and to show a wonderful level of detail. She’ll use a similar treatment on the remaining two leaves.
Kathryn worked from a photo showing a busy garden scene, with LOTS of little details!
She decided to preserve the curve created by the delicate white flowers, but to replace them with big bold pink ones. Very dramatic! She’ll represent many of the other flowers with little irregular snippets of fabric. (Even smaller than the one shown.)
Tami used two photos for her inspiration: a weathered fence and cone flowers.
She selected the perfect shibori fabric for the fence. Because she only had a small piece, she modified the design to accommodate this. The photo below shows her early plans for flower placement. Some flowers will be in front of the fence, and others will be behind.
These quilts are going to be great! Many more photos to come!
Ellen Lindner
P.S. I somehow missed photographing Linda McClelland’s quilt in-progress, but you can see the finished version in the student gallery!
I’m so crazy quilts with flowers and make them always with pleasure. Here I can learn a lot. Thank you.
Christina, flowers are always a popular subject in this class. And they’re easy to work with, since you can alter them quite a bit.